Strategic Planning: An Analysis of eBay's Business Model

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of eBay's strategic planning, examining its evolution from a listings-based platform to a product-based design. It delves into eBay's business strategy, emphasizing its focus on customer experience for both buyers and sellers, and the implementation of features like improved search capabilities. The report explores the core components of a successful business plan, including creating value for customers, developing business networks with partners, and establishing effective governance structures. It also highlights eBay's approach to customer communication, including assessing satisfaction and receiving feedback to build trust and loyalty. Furthermore, the report references key academic sources to support its findings, offering insights into eBay's competitive advantage and its ongoing efforts to adapt to the digital marketplace.

Running head: STRATEGIC PLANNING 1
Strategic Planning
Student’s Name
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Strategic Planning
eBay has been persistently rehashing itself since its launch in 1995 and its technique puts
an unbelievable attention on the principal mover advantage. eBay business technique can be
depicted as organization separation with the emphasis on customer experience of both,
purchasers and merchants. Specifically, the most recent changes consolidate "upgrading the site's
interest limits making finding things more sorted out. Instead of situating each and every
accessible thing when a thing is looked for, there will now be classes, for instance, "best regard,"
"new out of the plastic new" and others" (Simmerson, 2011). All around, as far back as couple of
years eBay business framework has been separate with a move from a postings based plan
toward a thing based design. The journey for this business framework has incorporated an
aggregation of thing related data from sellers to update customer association with a conclusive
purpose of building machine learning abilities to process an around the world, accessible
rundown of things.
Designing an optimal and adaptive organization unit to produce and deliver target goods
and services in a competitive manner
A business plan tends to portray engineering for how an organization makes and conveys
an incentive to clients and the instruments utilized to catch an offer of that esteem. It is a planned
game plan of segments concealing the enveloping of costs, wages, and advantages. As the
association with benefits clears up, the accomplishment of a business depends as much on plan
of activity layout and use, as it does on the selection of advancements and the movement of
considerable assets and equipment. The business ideal gives a direction through which
mechanical advancement and ability joined with the use of unmistakable and immaterial
resources are changed over into a flood of benefits (Boone & Kurtz, 2014). While the asset based

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perspective of the organization spotlights on the uniting of benefits that meet the four key criteria
characterized by Barney (1991) for assets and capacities that can bolster sturdy upper hand—
profitable, uncommon, defectively imitable, and non-substitutable (VRIN); this is just a single
piece of a procedure. The VRIN assets must be tackled to an intelligent methodology and a
sound plan of action. Best plans of action, be that as it may, will inevitably be imitated to some
degree by different firms, and VRIN resources related with a model can give at any rate some
assurance against advances by contenders (Paladino, 2011).
In eBay, value is generally created through provision of a virtual global market for
purchasers and sellers, in addition to collecting a tax on transactions as they take place. The
company’s business model is determined by its customers being its product development team,
merchandising department, security department, and sales/market force (Welchman, 2015). The
business model relies on eBay’s abilities.
Develop business networks of suppliers, partners and collaborators
Triumphant digital partnerships as well as business networks effectively collaborate in an
effort to develop innovative solutions resulting in victorious customer results. Collaboration
across whole vertical markets is considered the key to value creation (Abraham, 2012). eBay, in
2006, announced a deal with Google, a deal that took place soon after the former signed an
advertising contract with Yahoo!. This made some individuals think that eBay was collaborating
with Yahoo! against Google’s dominance (Simerson, 2011). However, this approach was aimed
at developing business networks for partners, collaborators, and suppliers.
Design, implement and review appropriate governance structures
eBay is governed from both within and outside. Its system has a source of automatic
control in the form of sellers and purchasers who rate each other on each contract and at the same

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time establishing norms and rules (Boone & Kurtz, 2014). A governance operating model
characterizes the systems and association focuses by which administration will be actualized
(Paladino, 2011). It engages the board and the official activity—as fitting to their parts and
obligations—to deal with these instruments and motivations behind cooperation over the
organization's business lines, true components, and wards. A venture level model, like the one
depicted here, may be changed in accordance with any utilitarian or working region to progress
reasonable execution of organization.
The organization working model contains four imperative sections, particularly structure,
which joins affiliation layout and specifying structure, warning gathering structures and
contracts, and control and support work interdependencies; oversight obligations, which portray
board oversight commitments, chamber and organization obligations, duty grids, and
organization enrolling and ending master, and capacity and culture, which engage the practices
and activities required for feasible organization by working up compensation approaches,
particularly regarding inspirations, headway techniques, business and working measures,
execution estimation and organization, getting ready, and activity and capacity change programs
(Welchman, 2015). It also constitutes infrastructure, which includes administration and hazard
oversight arrangements and methods, reports, measures and measurements, and administration
capacities, and the empowering IT and correspondences bolster (Abraham, 2012).
Notably, Meg Whitman’s style has greatly influenced the management of eBay. The
work environment is usually ultra-competitive and tough, where transformations come only after
PowerPoint slides are exchanged and refined at low levels, and ultimately presented at senior
level (Simerson, 2011). Moreover, the democratic underpinning of the organization, while easily
welcomed by customers, can take some getting used to. The clear and all-encompassing

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governance structure present at eBay tends to define risk management, public disclosures,
reporting lines for decision making, and uphold a governance structure that can be
comprehended by external stakeholders and internal workers.
Initiate and promote communication with customers, including assessing satisfaction and
receiving feedback
Managing the customer relationship incorporates building trust with the organization's
customers so they are less disposed to buy from its opponents. Talking with customers is a
respectable strategy to create trust and improve buyer unwaveringness. Standard communication
with clients over every one of an organization’s channels is imperative in staying up with the
latest with your business and keeps up the relationship (Boone & Kurtz, 2014). It is additionally
critical to speak with your clients in a way that suits them. On the off chance that they have
bought in to your web-based social networking channels, calling them may not be a suitable or
welcome type of correspondence. By staying in contact with your clients, you improve the
probability of them recalling your business or prescribing you to a companion next time they
require an item or administration you offer. Contingent upon the sort of business an organization
runs, the way the organization gets into contact with its clients will vary. Similarly, as with
everything in business, it is essential that you pick a technique that works with your plan of
action and brand (Paladino, 2011).
Collecting and following up on customer feedback is a certain necessity for any business
planning to outfit customers with the things they require. Customer criticism oversees and
teaches an organization's essential administration, affecting its product guide. It is, in like
manner, fundamental for assessing buyer faithfulness among the affiliation's present customers.
Seeing how customers see a given thing, support, and companions is precious (Welchman,

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2015). Today, there exists a portion of the most ideal ways an association can assemble bits of
knowledge from present and forthcoming clients who visit your site. Email is a standout amongst
the most important approaches to assemble sincere client input. Be that as it may, an
organization, for example, eBay can enhance the way clients contact them by means of email and
expand this current channel's viability — these progressions will make a superior affair for
clients, as well. Once in a while the most ideal approach to get a real to life reaction from a client
is to just request one. Since email isn't open like web-based social networking, and in light of the
fact that the technique is close to home not at all like a study, it can enable an association to
begin some entirely intriguing discussions with clients (Abraham, 2012). At the point when
clients join by means of email to get to data on the site, for instance, eBay has the chance to
convey an automated assistant email that asks a solitary inquiry. It can ask about what clients are
battling with, what include they might want to see the most, or just inquire as to why they joined.
eBay essentially guarantees that it really answer to these messages, or it will disappoint
individuals and they won't have any desire to email the organization once more.

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References
Abraham, S.C. (2012). Strategic planning: A practical guide for competitive success. 2nd Edition.
Emerald Group Publishing.
Boone, L.E., & Kurtz, D.L. (2014). Contemporary marketing, update 2015. 16th Edition. New
York: Cengage Learning.
Paladino, B. (2011). Innovative corporate performance management: Five key principles to
accelerate results. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Simerson, B. K. (2011). Strategic planning - a practical guide to strategy formulation and
executio. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.
Welchman, L. (2015). Managing chaos: Digital governance by design. Brooklyn, New York:
Rosenfeld Media (O’Reilly).